This ruling strengthens presidential accountability and ensures federal agencies operate with proper oversight — no unelected bureaucrats wielding unchecked power over American businesses and free speech.
Insiders say the Kimmel citation wasn't accidental. Gorsuch's team clearly coordinated with conservative media watchers who flagged Carr's threat as the perfect example of FCC overreach gone wild. The timing of ABC's license review — one day after Trump's social media attack on Kimmel — didn't help matters either.
September 17, 2025: Carr told Kimmel there would be 'additional work ahead' for the agency if broadcasters didn't 'find ways to take action,' adding '[W]e can do this the easy way or the hard way.' The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Trump v. Slaughter on June 29, 2026.
The Jimmy Kimmel dustup just became required reading at the highest court in the land — and if you're a media company already dodging FCC scrutiny, this ruling should terrify you.
In what might be the most Hollywood-adjacent Supreme Court opinion in recent memory, Justice Neil Gorsuch dropped Jimmy Kimmel's name into a landmark ruling Monday — using FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's infamous threat against the late-night host as Exhibit A for his argument that federal agencies have accumulated far too much power. The case at hand is Trump v. Slaughter, which centered on FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter being terminated by President Trump without cause.
The 6-3 decision, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, overturned the 91-year-old Humphrey's Executor precedent — effectively giving the White House vastly more control over independent agencies like the SEC, FTC, and FCC. It's a seismic shift that will reshape how Washington regulates everything from financial markets to broadcast airwaves. But it's Gorsuch's concurring opinion that's got Tinseltown buzzing.
The conservative justice didn't just side with the majority — he went further, citing Carr's public broadside against Kimmel as proof positive of agency overreach gone wrong. "And then there's late-night comedy," Gorsuch wrote, before quoting Carr's September 17, 2025 warning to broadcasters: "[W]e can do this the easy way or the hard way." That dustup, which resulted in a brief ABC suspension, apparently left such an impression on Gorsuch that he weaponized it in the highest court in the land.
The Jimmy Kimmel controversy stems from Carr's threat last year after taking "objection to a network host's on-air remarks" — widely understood to be Kimmel's political monologues. The FCC chairman suggested there would be "additional work ahead" for the agency if broadcasting companies didn't take action against the comedian. ABC is currently fighting the FCC on two fronts: an investigation into equal opportunity rules focused on The View, and a request to review its broadcast licenses — which landed just one day after President Trump criticized Kimmel on social media.
Carr has insisted the license review was "unrelated" to Kimmel and instead targeted Disney's DEI policies, though the timing raised plenty of eyebrows in entertainment circles. Gorsuch wasn't done there. His opinion warned of a future where "a business out of favor with the party in control of the White House might be able to stave off an FCC investigation," but could still face coordinated attacks from other agencies — FTC rules targeting trade practices, OSHA adjudications, SEC prosecutions.
"It may be true that after today there is no more 'fourth branch' of government," he noted. "But the fourth branch's powers still exist; they have just been reassigned to the President." Translation: The power hasn't disappeared from federal agencies — it's just consolidated in the Oval Office instead.
